Please help me find a suburban area to live (Chicago: best neighborhood, to rent)

[Korica]

My job is relocating me to Chicago this summer. I will be working in the River North area and need to find a place to live. I have a wife and two elementary school aged children. We currently live in a suburb and want to find something similar here. We want to rent a townhouse for a year or two before buying. Our budget for housing is $1,200 - $1,800 per month. We want to be in an area that has some level of diversity with good public schools.

I thought about Naperville until a co-worker told me how bad my commute would be. I would like the option of driving or taking the train. If I drive, I would like to arrive at work between 8:30 and 9:00 in 45 minutes or less. Given all of my criteria, can you please recommend a good area for me and my family to consider?

[chet everett]

Why does your co-worker thing your commute would be bad? There are numerous express trains that will get you from Naperville to Union Station in about half an hour and depending on where in River North you work you could work from Union Station or take a bus that would have you at your desk for a total trip of around 45 minutes.

The other options for suburban living might shave about 10-15 minutes off that but the overall mix of amenities and schools that you could get living in Naperville would be very hard to beat and still remain in your target budget...

[divakat]

My husband takes the train in from Naperville and it's very short, even shorter than a lot of the much closer in suburbs. The express train for him is 33 minutes to downtown Chicago.

Plus, Naperville has a good public transit system. There are numerous Pace buses that get you to the train station or you could walk if you get something close to the train.

[Korica]

I checked the Merta schedule and see that I can make it to Union Station in about a half hour. I work a few blocks from Chicago and Franklin so I'd have to catch a train or bus to get to the office. How long would it take to drive to River North from Naperville for those days I choose not to take the train?

Although everything I have heard about Naperville is good, I was really wanting to know if there other places I should consider that are a little closer and offer similar amenities.

[chet everett]

Driving would be awfully long from most spots in Naperville -- even if you were very close to the Naperville Rd or Rt 53 (technically in Lisle) interchanges you probably will need to cover almost 30 miles at an average speed that rarely exceeds 35-40 mph.

There are certainly towns that are closer that offer some of the amenities -- in DuPage Co you could look to Elmhurst or Downers Grove either of which has some of the best features of Naperville though probably at a slightly higher price, and in Cook Co you could consider LaGrange, Evanston or even Oak Park but the mix of housing in your price range in those towns is not going to be as new, as nice, nor as consistent as what Naperville has to offer -- you'll need to really scout out the various school offerings in particular whereas in Naperville performance is more uniform. I would also caution that although there are technically more options for CTA service from towns like Oak Park and Evanston the actual time savings of using the El is neglible. Of course driving from Oak Park might be faster than from a further suburb but parking at either end is likely to involve some additional costs / hassles...

[chitownperson]

Oak Park sounds like it could work well for your criteria. Good educational opportunities, pretty safe, diverse, and as close to the city as any western suburb is going to get, minus Cicero.

[kindrakindra]

Another vote for Oak Park. The green line el train is less than a 20 minute train ride. From there, you could walk to most spots in River North in less than 15 minutes. You could also jump on a very short bus ride if one is present.

A drive from Oak Park to River North would also be a good bet, assuming you had parking figured out (budget around $30 day unless you did monthly parking). The drive along surface streets would be about 30 minutes, more if the weather is bad. Chicago Avenue is a good thoroughfare, although admittedly not through the best neighborhood.

Although the many Metra options are fine, there are only a few Metra trains from Naperville that are 33 minutes. Many are much, much more. If you work a little later, the train times skyrocket. There are no express trains at 7 pm. Once you arrived in Chicago, a bus ride to River North would be at a minimum 15 minutes, and more likely closer to 20, and even more in bad weather.

Also calculate getting to your train a few minutes early, the train ride, waiting for bus and the bus ride itself. A Naperville commute seems to be well over an hour.

To clarify a point above, a bus from where the green line el lets you off compared to a bus from a train station is probably a ten minute difference.

[chet everett]

I would urge anyone considering either the closer-in towns or something a little further out to compare the whole range of trade offs that go with either set of options.
The sorts of trade offs that are easy to quantify are the commute options and some of the housing costs/types. Harder to quantify are the sorts of things like the relative ease of not having too many concerns of disparity of outcomes between schools in the district / uniformity of achievement and even the differences between minor crime -- while having someone steal stuff from your garage is not like being knocked out and having your pockets rifled through there still a sense of violation and frustration that some people are willing to accept as part of a more urban setting while others prefer to avoid...

The folks willing to sit on the Ike for an extra 20 or 30 minutes a day have different priorities than those who live closer in. Those priorities either align with your vision of how you want to live or they don't. Trying to convince people that "everything is about the same" is fruitless. The differences, obvious or subtle, are not going to go away and in fact will likely become sharper over time...

[chisub]

Agree with Chet and will add another factor since we currently live in Aurora on the Naperville border and my husband commutes into the city. Time with your family! I am a SAHM (1 and 3 y/o) and there are many families that have husbands that have long commutes or are out of town for days/weeks at a time. However, as much as we love this area, we want our kids to have two parents present more often than the long commute currently allows. It's all a trade off, so like Chet said, you need to figure out what is right for your family.

[linicx]

I vote for Oak Park for a professional too. OP is not only racially diverse, and perhaps more liberal than some of the other suburbs, you can find what you need from transportation, to Trader Joe's, parks, restaurants, shopping and other services. You will not find everything you want, but your basic needs are met and then some.

Unfortunately all Illinois schools are a mixed bag. They are not all sweetness and light; or are they all ghetto. The State of Illinois has nearly every public high school in Illinois including Cook County, Lake County,, DuPage County, Will County and Kanakakee County on its watch list due to the failure to meed state and federal education standards. The list also contains some Junior High Schools. Money and skin color doesn't seem to have much influence on the list as Naperville and Will County schools are on the list, too. Factually, if you want your children to attend an all white, all black, all hispanic, all asian, an all indian, or an all LGBT school- they will attend a private school, religious schoolm or be home schooled. Oak Park is noted for its family friendly, racial diverse community with a library that offers excellent programs for kids.

If every school was exactly the same with the same level of teaching at the end of the year there would still be a gap between the top students and the bottom students. Not all students are created equal. Not all parents are actively involved with schools regarding their children's education, and not all parents care.

If you like Oak Park, if you and your wife are involved with the school, and if you and your wife are involved with your children at home, your children will get a good education regardless of who their classmates are, and regardless of where they go to school. There are members who live in Oak Park who will willingly answer your questions about OP and their school system. The Village of OP is not Nirvana, it is less than 1/2 the population of Naperville, and it is still a desirable address as is Naperville.

The last Garden of Eden I encountered was a restaurant in Tulsa. Don't let the Chicken Littles' "sky is falling" rhetorics scare you off from living in a place you like. Do your own footwork before you make a final decision.; it will be the right one for you and your family. Good Luck!